


Don't Unlace Your Madcap Abandon

by Rosbridge



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-20
Updated: 2015-03-20
Packaged: 2018-03-18 18:44:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,741
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3579999
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rosbridge/pseuds/Rosbridge
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>On a mission to track down a wayward Republic spy involved in the Coruscant underground racing scene Ahsoka and Rex take in a little classic podracing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Don't Unlace Your Madcap Abandon

**Author's Note:**

  * For [itsfulcrum](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=itsfulcrum).



> Prompt:Anakin drags Ahsoka to some kind of illegal racing

Ahsoka looked around, trying to take in her surroundings. The cavernous space was brightly lit, showing off layers of grime that seemed to coat everything, including the people. Despite the late hour the whole chamber was packed. She could feel the crowd's anticipation in the force, a low hum that seemed to creep through the air and settle in her stomach, putting her on edge.

She looked up at her master. Standing beside her, Anakin was a bright spot in the force. He had a smile on his face that usually meant he was gearing up for a fight. He was also, she thought grumpily, far too energetic for someone who had been deprived of the chance to sleep in a real bed not even twelve hours into what was supposed to be their first chance at leave in months. In theory, they were in search of a Delina Saccal, a member of Master Tholme's network of spies and informants. Saccal had failed to make her last few check-ins with her handler. Ahsoka privately thought their mission was probably a waste of time. She didn't think that a woman who'd skipped out on Master Tholme would linger on planet.

“Where are we, anyway?” Ahsoka asked, suppressing a yawn.

Anakin beamed as he turned back towards her. “You'll see.”

Rex met Anakin's eyes with a sceptical expression. “It seems to me like we're in a waystation on the Yemel Race Route.”

Anakin laughed, looking ridiculously pleased.

“And how would you know that?”

Rex looked uncomfortable. “Some of the lads...” he began, trailing off in a way that suggested he regretted opening his mouth to begin with.

Anakin's grin intensified “Who? Wait, don't answer that. I shouldn't know. It's technically illegal.” He bounced in place a little, peering over the crowd. “I used to come here all the time.”

“To the illegal, literally underground races.” Ahsoka replied. “Wow. I'm sure Obi-Wan loved that.”

Anakin shrugged, adopting a deliberately unconcerned expression. “ _Technically_ illegal, Snips. It's not like the police don't know where it is. There are probably some of them in the crowd right now. Besides,” he added, “it all worked out. Our spy is a racer, and if she's gone to ground anywhere on Coruscant it'll be here. Luckily for everyone, I know my way around.”

“Great,” Ahsoka said, not bothering to try and sound enthusiastic. “I'm so glad your expertise made us the perfect fit for this mission.”

“Some of this seems like the sort of thing General Kenobi would like,” Rex offered, looking at the stalls selling drinks that lined the edges of the pit. There were people clustered around tables set up outside the stalls, drinking and talking. Mostly drinking. “Remember that time on Corellia, when-”

Ahsoka shuddered, cutting him off. “I thought we had agreed not to talk about that.”

Rex cracked a smile in response. “Sorry, Commander.”

Anakin rolled his eyes, pushing through the crowd.

“It wasn't that bad. And being a designated driver is basically a part of your spiritual heritage.” He adopted a solemn tone that sounded a little like Master Obi-Wan mid-lecture. “It teaches patience, adaptability, and the importance of an open mind.”

Ahsoka pulled a face at Rex, feeling pleased with herself when he had to hide a smile behind his hand. Lately he hadn't been smiling nearly enough.

Anakin shook his head in mock disapproval, then continued

“Master Tholme thinks that Dooku might be onto her. If the Separatists are after her and she's worried the meets were compromised, it would explain why she hasn't been showing up”

“If Saccal's on planet and one of us, why would she go to ground instead of turning to the Jedi for help?” asked Rex.

“Delina has a bit of a history with Republic law enforcement. In addition to her ties to the underground racing community she's done a bit of smuggling- that's how she's been getting in and out of Separatist space. She's also been known to act as a getaway driver if the target's right. She doesn't entirely trust the Republic.”

Rex looked disapproving “A thief who doesn't trust the Republic? How do we know she didn't swap sides and sell us out to the Seppies?”

Anakin shook his head, weaving around a cluster of drunken Pantorans “We don't know for sure that she didn't. Our mission is to capture her and bring her in if she won't come willingly. But it doesn't seem likely. She might not like the Republic much but she hates the Separatists. Master Tholme says she's holding a grudge over the invasion of Ryloth”. He hesitated for a moment. “And I knew her. Not well, but she didn't seem like the type to back out of a deal.”

Ahsoka frowned. “You knew her?”

He looked uncomfortable. “I told you, I used to come here all the time. Delina was always around.”

“Even if she hasn't turned against us, if she thinks the Separatists are onto her why would she stick around? Assuming she's still alive.”

“Apparently,” Anakin said, sounding distinctly appreciative “some of those rumoured targets have been the Hutts. If she hasn't betrayed us she'll stick to Republic space”

Rex let out a low whistle. “Stealing from the Hutts and spying on Dooku? She's not a coward. But I'm not sure I'd take the odds on her still being alive.”

Anakin shook his head, smiling. “I'd take that bet. Delina's resourceful, and she knows how to handle herself. And if she is alive and on planet, she'll definitely be here. She won't be able to resist it”.

Ahsoka raised an eyebrow. “It sounds like you knew her pretty well.”

Her master shrugged, smiling a little. “You can learn a lot about people from how they race, and she was a hell of a racer.”

Ahsoka decided to let it go for now. There'd be time to tease him about his secret history later, when she was less likely to provoke a dissertation on the merits of different racers' strategy and techniques. Or awake enough to be properly interested “So what's the plan?”

Anakin grinned, looking equally pleased with himself and the universe. “We canvas the area and blend with the locals. Take in the sights. You two work your way through the stands, I'll take the floor. And in the spirit of low key canvassing, do either of you want snacks?”

“Caf,” Ahsoka said firmly, “lots of caf. And a burger.” Anakin looked down at her disapprovingly. “It'll stunt your growth.”

Ahsoka snorted. “I'm almost sixteen. And I'm still going to be taller than you, just wait and see.”

“As if. Montrals don't count. Rex?”

“Caf and a burger sounds great to me. It's late. Or early, depending on your perspective.”

Anakin nodded, smiling brightly at them before ducking around a cluster of spectators, disappearing into the crowd. Ahsoka and Rex made their way through the stands in companionable silence, zigzagging from top to bottom and working their way up one side of the cavern and down the other.

The spy frustratingly failed to materialize on their first or second pass, but Ahsoka had to admit it was kind of nice to be out with Rex without having to worry about being ambushed by droids. Partway through their third attempt, Ahsoka glanced up at the holoprojector, blinked, then rubbed her eyes and looked again. On screen, a child in a yellow pod continued to weave between the other racers with a suspiciously familiar ease.

“Is that _Anakin_?”

Rex, turned to look at the projector and nodded calmly, totally failing to respond with appropriate shock. Traitor. “Looks like it.”

It was surreal, but she could feel the truth of it in the force. Anakin looked younger than he'd been in the oldest holo she'd ever seen of him, but the way he flew- like the pod was an extension of his will, as much a part of him as a lightsaber in the hands of a dueling master- was unmistakable.

She frowned, glancing back at Rex, who remained stubbornly unperturbed “What was he doing podracing? He's tiny! And that's _really_ illegal, no technically about it. If Obi-Wan let him podrace he never gets to complain about me drinking caf ever again. Or anything else.”

Rex seemed amused “It's not illegal on Tatooine. And I doubt General Kenobi had anything to do with it. He was a podracer before he was a Jedi. You didn't know?”

Ahsoka bit her lip. It hurt a little to know he'd shared this part of himself with Rex and not with her. “He doesn't like talking about his past. With me, anyway.”

Or with any other Jedi that she knew of. No one else had a history outside the temple, and growing up in a tight knit community of Jedi wasn't really conducive to keeping secrets. Secrets that didn't stop once he came to the temple; secrets like a history of spending time at the races on Coruscant, meeting people like Delina Saccal. People he had things in common with he'd never even tried to talk to her about. She took a deep breath, then released it. It shouldn't matter. There were more important things to focus on, like tracking down their missing spy and the fact that Anakin had apparently once been an adorable racing prodigy and she could make fun of him forever.

“So what else did he tell you?” she asked

“Not much. Me and some troopers managed to take in a race while we were stationed in the Outer Rim. Hell of a sport, but he seemed to like it. It's a big deal out there. The whole planet shut down for the day.”

“Sounds like a party.”

“It could definitely be described in those terms.”

Rex made a face, then smiled.“It wasn't like anything you get in the core, Commander. I can tell you that”

“I can see that” she replied, watching a couple of racers crash into each other and explode in a fiery inferno.

Anakin chose that moment to rejoin them, laden with burgers, caf, and some of her favourite candy. The lingering glow of the explosion on the holoscreen lit up his hair like a halo.

“Good news. Delina is definitely here” he said as he paused to distribute the loot.

“Not in the stands” Rex replied before tearing into his food.

Ahsoka grabbed her caf and took a swig, holding it close. The universe suddenly seemed to be a much nicer place. After a bite of her burger she upgraded her assessment to basically tolerable.

“Well, she's not on the floor, either, but she was spotted here earlier, when they were setting up the food stalls. Our next step-”

Ahsoka, still watching the holoscreen over Anakin's shoulder, saw a group of aliens take aim and fire at Anakin's pod and made a startled noise despite herself. “Are they _shooting_ at you?”

“That cannot be standard procedure,” Rex added, shaking his head and taking a huge bite of candy. She surreptitiously stole some from him before he could eat it all.

Anakin looked puzzled.“What? Nobody's shooting-” he said, turning to see what they were looking at. On the holoscreen, the aliens appeared to be celebrating their hit. He froze, alarm warring with resignation on his face. Eventually he turned back towards them, looking apprehensive.

“Oh. That. Actually, it kind of was. Tuskens used to camp out on the edges of the canyons and take pot shots. Not like here. The crowds get angry if people start shooting.” He pulled a face that suggested the Coruscant racing community was overly sensitive to blaster fire. “They think it compromises the integrity of the race. Like you even deserve to win if you let a couple of blaster bolts throw you off your game.”

Ahsoka looked up at him skeptically. “Really? I'm not saying it's not important to keep it together under fire, but should you really be under fire in the middle of a race?”

Anakin opened his mouth to argue with her, then cleared his throat, obviously hoping change the subject and avoid the inevitable “Anyway, we have to find Delina, so-”

On screen, baby Anakin came up behind another racer who locked engines with him. He spiralled away and pulled ahead.

Rex winked at her, then made an approving noise

“That was a nice one, General.”

Anakin smiled a little self consciously, running a hand through his hair, “Thanks, but we should really-”

No way she was letting him get out of this that easily. Ahsoka bared her teeth in an approximation of a smile. “Oh, but I'm having so much fun taking in the sights! For example, you're downright adorable. Those goggles take up half your face. How old were you?”

Anakin gave her a distinctly shifty look. “Nine.”

“Nine! And you gave me grief about my flying when I was fourteen.”

Anakin looked offended. “I did not! You were a very talented pilot. And now you're even better. Podracing is different than combat, anyway”

Rex snorted “I don't know, General.” He said, gesturing at the screen “There are people shooting at you, other people trying to force you to crash, explosions you have to dodge. It seems pretty combative to me.”

Anakin huffed at the betrayal, but he seemed amused and willing to be distracted from their search. He loved to talk about racing; victory was clearly at hand. “Yeah, they're mostly murderous cheaters, but that's all part of the challenge. You just have to adjust your strategy accordingly. If it wasn't so dangerous people wouldn't be nearly as invested.”

Ahsoka looked up at him “Blood sport? Really?”

He shrugged, still smiling.“That's what they call it here. There's a reason you can't find it in the core worlds.” His eyes were fixed on the screen now, “This is the best part, just wait for it,” he said as a dug knocked into his former self, entangling their engines. His expression broadened into a satisfied grin as the dug's engines separated from his pod and he crashed spectacularly. Baby Anakin flew on to victory.

Rex laughed. “The explosions do make it exciting.”

Ahsoka couldn't help but grin a little, too. “You didn't seem to be trying to get anyone else killed. Just yourself.”

He grinned conspiratorial at her. “I didn't need to try and kill anyone else, Snips, because I am just that good.”

The holoscreen switched over to shots of baby Anakin celebrating, surrounded by a crowd of people, and wait- “Is that Senator Amidala? And _Jar Jar_?” It was, she was sure of it. A tall bearded man picked Anakin up and held him as they clustered around him with a couple of other kids she didn't recognize and an older woman with dark hair and kind eyes.

She turned to look at Anakin when he didn't respond. He'd gone still and tense, his expression eerily blank and the colour bleached from his face. He held arms stiffly at his sides, hands clenched into fists like he was stopping himself from reaching for the screen. He didn't turn to look at her.

“Master?”

“Yes. That's her.” He said in a flat, detached tone that was nothing like the usual dreamy (and honestly kind of gross) way he usually talked about the Senator. He cleared his throat. “Them. It's them. It's my last race, before I left. They took me with them." He wasn't even looking at the Senator, she realized, faintly unsettled. All of his attention was on the older woman.

“Who are the others?” Ahsoka asked after a moment.

He shook his head almost violently and tore his eyes away from the screen. “It doesn't matter. We should be looking for Delina.” But he didn't move, standing frozen and in place as if he was being pinned down by some great weight

“Anakin?” She asked again, suddenly deeply worried. She couldn't help him if he wouldn't tell her what was wrong.

Anakin's whole presence in the force had turned dark and unhappy, but he eventually met her eyes and answered.“Some old friends. Master Jinn. And.” He paused again. “And my mother.”

Ahsoka had known he'd had one- he'd admitted as much, on Zygarria. It was still unsettling to think about. Jedi didn't have mothers. Neither did clones, for that matter, she thought as she looked over at Rex, who met her eyes looking about as awkward and concerned as she felt. She wanted, more than anything, to know what to do or say, but mothers were not something she had much experience with. She wasn't sure her sociology classes would be much help here. Almost all societies promoted strong parent-child bonds, she remembered. Anakin certainly seemed affected by his mother.

She hesitated. “She's very pretty.” Crap. Was Tatooine a culture where suggesting someone's mother was attractive was an insult? If he and his mother had been slaves, were they even from Tatooine? Why didn't she _know_ these things? Cultural sensitivity seminars were useless.

“I mean- she has nice eyes.” Not helping, Tano. Rex raised an eyebrow at her skeptically, and she scowled at him, then took a deep breath. “She seems nice.”

Anakin turned back towards her, visibly forcing himself to relax a little, tension vibrating down his frame.

He hesitated. “She was.” The past tense hummed between them like a drawn saber.

“She was better than nice, she was.” He stopped and swallowed, and looked at Rex, then back at Ahsoka. She looked back, and for a second all she could see was the little boy from the race, a stranger from a strange culture. The silence stretched awkwardly between them.

Ahsoka took a deep breath. She was a Jedi and a Commander of the Republic. She did not retreat before awkward silences.

“I'm sorry” Loss had become commonplace at the temple of late, but she didn't think the standard invocations would be much use to him. Presumably he knew his mother had rejoined the force. It didn't seem to have eased his grief.

Rex made a low sound of agreement. “Losing family is always hard.” Ahsoka felt grateful for the interjection. Clones might have brothers instead of mothers, but they knew something of family at least.

Anakin looked at them both for a long moment. “Thank you.”

“What was she like?” Ahsoka asked, before she could stop herself.

Anakin hesitated for a moment. “She was very kind. And smart. She's the one who taught me how to build engines.”

Ahsoka felt a tentative wave of kinship for the woman onscreen. Anakin had taught her to build engines too. It was strange to think that she had a connection to her, the same way she had a connection to Obi-Wan. Lessons passed through generations, originating on Tatooine or some other unknown place rather than the Temple, but no less a part of her for that. It warmed her a little, to know she shared that with him.

“And she was always there for me. Always. She- we couldn’t always protect each other, but she always tried. She never failed me when I needed her.”

Anakin stopped talking. The long ago race had faded from the holoscreen. He stared at the blank space where his former self had been celebrating moments beforehand.

“But I wasn't there when they took her.” He left the rest of the sentence unsaid.

It made a sick wave of empathy rise in her stomach. She imagined Anakin dead on a battlefield while she was deployed halfway across the galaxy, unable to help. His mother hadn't been a Jedi, hadn't had their skills or training. How would it feel to care for someone so fragile, lacking even the clones' blasters and armour? It wouldn't happen to Anakin, she promised herself, reaching out to grab his hand and squeezing tightly before dropping it. He stared at her for a moment, then smiled a little hesitantly. Some of the tension bled out of him. A loud boom suddenly filled the cavern, breaking the moment. The holoscreen lit up again, this time displaying a countdown. Anakin's face twisted in consternation.

“The race- damn it, we need to find Delina.”

As he spoke crowd tensed all at once, suddenly feeling more like a one great organism than a collection of individuals. She wasn't sure she liked the feeling, but the excitement that pulsed around them was heady and almost intoxicating, distracting her from Anakin's irritation and the things lingering behind it, darker and unspoken.

Her master swore, then then laughed, low and bitter, pointing to one of the speeders, far below her.

“There. I can't believe I didn't sense it before.”

“Sense what?” Ahsoka asked, extending her senses towards the speeder.

“It's Delina. She's not here to watch, she's here to race.” Reality seemed to snap back into focus. The mission beckoned, comforting in its familiarity. They had a target to pursue. She knew how to handle that.

“Well? What's the plan? Do we go after her?”

Anakin didn't respond for a second, then shook his head. “We stay put. The track is a loop, and she'll end up back here. We'll grab her when the race is over.”

As he finished his sentence, a besalisk racer pulled up close to Saccal's open speeder, pulled out a blaster, and started firing. Saccal swerved violently, then pulled up sharply into an open ventilation duct. The besalisk followed her, still shooting. The crowd booed as Anakin cursed again and jumped up on a railing, running down it to a better vantage point. He stared at the stadium for a long moment before abruptly turning back towards them.

“Rex, grab the speeder we came in and head to the Illiet Crossway, by the old industrial sector. About five stories above ground. That's where she'll come out of the catacombs.”

Ahsoka scrambled to follow him “And how do we know that?”

“Because” Anakin said, examining the stands below them “After we steal a racing speeder and catch up to her, that's where we're going to force her out.”

“Right,” Rex said. “I'll have a blockade set up.”

Anakin smiled at him, a little more of the tension bleeding out of him. “Good thinking. Ahsoka, let's go!” He jumped over the heads of a several startled spectators, landed on another walkway, then jumped again, leaving clusters of outraged racegoers in his wake. Ahsoka waved goodbye to Rex and followed him. The people she landed next to squawked and scattered, cursing her, five generations of her family, and interfering, inconsiderate Jedi everywhere in a multitude of different languages.

Landing in the arena, Anakin used the force to shove a couple of angry looking guards out of the way as he ran over to a small cluster of speeders. The guards hit the ground and picked themselves up to head back towards him. Ashoka put on a burst of speed and ignited her lightsaber as she intercepted them, jumping and twisting to kick one in the head while she sliced the other's blaster in two. The second guard took a swing at her and she kicked his knee out. He went down howling. She grinned in satisfaction. Behind her, Anakin had chosen a speeder and pried open a panel to begin bypassing the security features designed to stop people from doing exactly what they were trying to do.

“Why are these speeders even here?” Ahsoka asked as she jumped into passenger’s seat.

“There are always a few racers who can't make it. Things catch up with them.”

“ _Things_?”

“Outstanding warrants, new enemies, old enemies, old friends who've turned into new enemies. A pressing date with a rancor. The usual.”

A new cluster of guards had descended from the stands and up and ran towards them, shooting. Ahsoka stood up and deflected the blasts. They didn't look happy. A couple of them were carrying a very large shocksticks. Ahsoka hoped Anakin would hurry. The last time he'd been electrocuted the healers had started tossing around words like “permanent brain damage” and “death.”

Anakin twisted something inside the speeder and shouted triumphantly as it suddenly roared to life. The acceleration pushed Ahsoka back into her seat as they shot off towards the open channel, leaving the guards behind them. He still had one hand in the open panel. As they put on another burst of speed, Ahsoka realized he'd been disabling safety features designed to keep the speeder from accelerating too quickly or going too fast for the narrow, twisting track.

“Right,” Ahsoka belatedly replied as she realized why Anakin might know what parts of Coruscant a ventilation shaft attached to an illegal race course lead to.

Flying with Anakin was almost comforting. Ahsoka could barely see where they were going, but she didn't really need to. She could feel it. The blinding speed and sharp turns should have been terrifying, but Anakin was steady and strong through their bond, calmer again, concentrating on the chase and the simple joy of flight. She took a deep breath and reached out in the force, feeling the weight of her Master's focus, anticipating the turns and shifts an instant before they happened. She could feel Anakin smiling to himself. He was clearly planning something. As she opened her mouth to ask what, he jerked the speeder around, taking a sharp left turn and heading down a narrow corridor that had been hidden in shadows.

“She didn't go this way!” Ahsoka yelled over the rushing wind.

Anakin's smile turned vicious.

“We'll never catch up if we just follow the path she's laid out for us, Snips. Keep an open mind. This is a shortcut.”

They rushed through the dark. Away from the racetrack, there were no lights. Ahsoka couldn't tell where the walls were, if they were in another cavern or a corridor barely wide enough to accommodate them. She reached out again, feeling her way through the force. Anakin's certainty sang along their bond. They'd intercept Saccal soon.

Anakin wrenched the speeder around once more, and all of a sudden there was light again, dim but present, and Saccal ahead of them. She'd shaken her assassin, but didn't seem to be in a trusting mood. When she saw them coming she sped up.

“We have to talk to her!” Ahsoka yelled above the rushing wind.

“I'd like that, Snips, but she's really not giving us the chance.”

“Can you crash into her?”

“ _What?_ ”

“Not a full on crash, just- knock in to her, like that dug knocked into you. Could you pin her to the wall?”

“And then what?”

“Just trust me!”

Anakin looked at her with a serious expression on his face, then nodded and offered her a smile. “All right.”

More speed, a dizzying swoop and they'd pulled alongside her. Anakin turned their speeder into hers, knocking it against the wall and pinning the speeders together with an awful shrieking noise. Ahsoka jumped.

She landed on the hood of the other speeder and Saccal- a pretty green twi'lek with a scar running down the side of her face-scowled ferociously. Ahsoka lit her lightsaber.

“I just want to talk!” Ahsoka yelled.

Saccal tried to shake her off, but she was pinned tightly. She didn't seem to be in a talking mood.

Time for plan B. “I'm a Jedi!” she screamed “Stop your speeder or I'll run my lightsaber though your engine.”

Saccal hesitated. Ahsoka raised her saber, getting it into position. Saccal cursed, and slowed down, Anakin with her. He looked over at Ahsoka and waved an arm expressively.

“Really?”

“Hey, don't knock it. It worked.”

Saccal leaned out of her speeder, glowering at them. She stared at Anakin with her mouth open for a brief second

“ _You!_ You crazy piece of shit, what were you _doing?”_

Anakin smiled at her. “Hi Delina. How've you been?”

“A lot better before some asshole decided to crash his speeder into mine. What are you doing here?”

“Oh. Right.” Anakin looked deeply awkward. She rolled her eyes. “As my apprentice mentioned, we're Jedi. We're here to take you in”

“Jedi?” Saccal snorted, giving him an appraising and distinctly unfriendly look. “I should have known. If I wanted to be in, I'd be in. Fuck off and leave me alone”.

Anakin sighed “I'm afraid we can't do that. Come in, talk to your handler. You'll be paid, and then I'm sure we can work something out.”

Saccal leveled an obscene gesture in his direction. “I don't trust you. _Jedi._ I'm not going anywhere with you.”

Anakin looked irritated. “Delina, people are trying to kill you. We just want to help.”

“People are trying to kill me because the Republic sold me out.” She snapped “You'll forgive me if I'm not interested in giving you a second chance to fuck me over.”

Anakin's expression darkened at the accusation. Ashoka kicked his speeder hard enough that it rattled, and he looked up at her and smiled. She turned back to Saccal. “Why do you think the Republic betrayed you?”

“Only Republic forces knew what I was doing, and I didn't get caught. Someone sold me out. You have a traitor, and if they told Dooku what I was doing for you what's to say they won't tell him where I am if I come with you?”

Anakin's expression tightened. “You shouldn't underestimate Dooku's cunning. Or overestimate your own abilities. If you were caught, we need to know how. Only Jedi will know where you are. You'll be safe. There are no traitors among us”.

Saccal crossed her arms. “Skywalker, if I go down, it's not going to be cowering in a safehouse somewhere. I want to die on my own terms, in a speeder if I can manage it. Don't even try to tell me you wouldn't feel the same in my position.”

Anakin looked at her for a long moment, then jumped to stand beside Ahsoka onto the hood of her speeder. The certainty she'd felt earlier faded, leaving a queasy feeling in its wake.

“Move over.” Saccal glared at him, but did as he asked. He hopped into the driver's seat and fired up the engine.

Saccal paled. “I helped you! I fought in your war.”

“You stopped showing up at meetings. Everything you know has been compromised. My orders are to bring you in so we can debrief you.”

“I don't know anything! Not about who sold me out and not about you. I don't know even the name of my handler. That's the point. If I get captured by Dooku I have nothing to say that he doesn't already know!”

Anakin looked at her coldly. “With your skillset, I would be very surprised if that's true.”

Saccal met his gaze. “I won't work for Dooku.”

“Why not?” Ahsoka asked “Are you that angry about Ryloth being invaded? You don't even live there.”

Saccal looked at her with contempt “They killed my father.” Ahsoka shifted uncomfortably, a sudden flash of insight in the force setting her on edge. She held Saccal's gaze, sympathy rising within her. More dead parents. It didn't seem entirely fair.

Saccal smiled viciously at Ahsoka and continued “When they invaded my home world, droids shot him dead in the streets and left him there like trash”

Anakin looked at her. His hands flexed on the speeders' controls “You should meet with Master Tholme. We'll find out how Dooku figured it out.”

She wasn't stopping. “I didn't find out for months. I hadn't spoken to him in years. He didn't approve.” She paused, and drew in a harsh breath. “Of anything I did, really. But he was a good man and I loved him. He didn't deserve that.” She met Anakin's eyes, searching for something. “I would never help Dooku. I'd die first. I probably will die. I've made my peace with that. But I want to die free.”

Anakin's expression had gone hard and blank again, like it had while he'd watched his younger self celebrate a long ago victory. Ahsoka thought about what battle droids did to bodies and felt a little sick. Not Anakin, she thought. She could protect him, the way he protected her. They could keep each other safe.

Anakin and Saccal stared at each other for a long moment, something passing between them. Ahsoka couldn't bring herself to mind. He looked back towards her where she was still perched on the hood of Saccal's speeder.

“Ahsoka?”

“Yes, Master?”

“Go talk to Rex. He should be waiting at the end of the tunnel. Tell them we've got her, she's coming in with us.”

She hesitated, not wanting to leave him.

“Go. Up that way. Wait for us. We'll follow in a moment”.

Ahsoka scowled at him and left, nerves humming unpleasantly. When she emerged into the Coruscant night, Rex was standing by with a full unit.

“Where's the General?”

“With Saccal. They should be here any second.”

Minutes passed, but her master did not appear, and neither did Saccal. Her feeling of unease strengthened as time slowed to a monotonous crawl. Anakin wasn't picking up his comm. Exhaustion started to creep back around the edges of the caf and fading adrenaline. Finally, just as she was about to give up and go back in after him, orders be damned, he answered.

“Sorry about that, Snips.”

“Where are you? What happened?”

“I'm still in the tunnel. Delina got the jump on me, knocked me over the head and shoved me out of the speeder. Very unfriendly. My feelings are hurt.” Ahsoka swore and hoped back in the speeder, firing up the engines.

“Are you all right?”

“I'm fine. Takes more than a racer to get me down. I could use a lift, though.”

“I'm on my way.” She hesitated “And Master?”

“Yes, Snips?”

“You did the right thing.”

There was a pause on his end of the line “I don't know what you're talking about.”

“Sure you don't."

“You wound me, Snips” he replied with a laugh in his voice. “Your lack of faith is very disturbing.”

She grinned into her comm “Ahsoka out.”

Ahsoka angled the speeder down the vent shaft and went off in search of her wayward master, confident in her ability to find him. She'd been half right, earlier. His past mattered. It made him an oddity among the Jedi, sometimes even to her. But it didn't change the important things. She'd known who he was for a long time.


End file.
